Avoid This One Big Halloween Mistake

Halloween is just 6 days away and with it, the great sugar rush known as Trick-or-treat. Although most fun-size candies have 80 calories or less, it’s very easy to eat 10 or more during a leisurely evening stroll among young monsters and witches. In fact, one can consume an entire day’s worth of calories in a matter of hours.

While this isn’t ideal, there is a much graver danger to your waistline than eating candies on Halloween eve: eating even more candies in the weeks after the holiday. When huge stockpiles are readily available at home, and, in many cases, at the office, instead of one cheat night, you are faced with weeks of sweet temptation.

How can this diet catastrophe be averted?

At home, the brute force method of throwing out all the candy collected by your kids is highly effective, but comes with many side effects, as popularized by the famous Jimmy Kimmel videos.

Another option is a switch in your state of mind. Instead of saying “I can’t be eating candy”, say “I don’t eat candies after Halloween”. This simple change in framing has been shown to be an effective means of behavior modification. Call it “psychological empowerment” if you will.

A vegetarian doesn’t eat meat. A devout Jew doesn’t eat pork. You don’t eat candies on any day that isn’t Halloween. “I can’t” is a temporary resolution, but “I don’t” is permanent. By uttering “I don’t do X” instead of “I can’t do X”, you create an identity for yourself that helps reduce the willpower needed to say no to candy.

So go ahead and enjoy Halloween. Just remember, you don’t eat candy in November.